Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to your music lesson today.

My name is Miss Al-Hanoush and today, we're going to be exploring how classical composers use the pentatonic scale.

So before we get started, join me at the keyboard for a quick warmup.

For your warmup today, I would like you to work out the time signature.

Here we go.

Nice and easy to start with.

That was 4/4, well done if you got that right.

So, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three four.

Okay.

Here's the next one.

Well done if you said 3/4 for that one, and if you spotted that accompaniment style with the oom-pah-pah as well.

Okay, what about this one? That one was 5/4.

One, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five.

Well done if you got that.

Okay, what about this last one? Well done if you said 2/4 for that one, so One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, and so on, okay? So 2/4 for that last one.

We're going to be looking at some pieces that are in 2/4 and 3/4 today.

So let's crack on and see what we're going to do.

In today's lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, your body, and a keyboard.

If you don't have a keyboard, you will need an app.

I'm going to use a free virtual instrument called Virtual Piano, and if you would like to use an instrument with me a virtual instrument with me, you will need to ask your parent or your carer to help you find one.

So mine is Virtual Piano that looks like this, and you will be able to play all of the keyboard notes on here that you will need in today's lesson.

So I really recommend downloading one, if you can, before you start the lesson.

You will also need a quiet space to work in, and you will also need to turn off any apps or notifications that might come through on electronic devices and stop you from learning.

So if you need to go and get your equipment or find yourself a quiet space, please do that now and pause the video and then resume when you're ready.

Let's take a look at today's lesson agenda.

You're going to begin by exploring how classical composers used the pentatonic scale.

You're then going to learn how to play the G-flat major pentatonic scale, and then perform pentatonic melodies by Bartok and Debussy, and then finally compose in the style of a classical composer.

So let's begin by exploring how classical composers used the pentatonic scale.

Before we begin to explore classical composers and the pentatonic scale, I would like you to think about the two questions on screen.

So there are many different things that you might have said then.

Here are a few.

You might have said that friends, celebrities, branding, social media, magazines, TV and films, maybe influence what you wear or what you listen to.

That might not be an exhaustive list, but you might be influenced by different things.

So what influences composers to write the music that they write? Well, it's the same kind of things that you've probably already said, but also, things like everyday life, the music that they listen to, and other composers.

Lots of composers actually borrow musical ideas from other great musicians and composers.

Let's look at two famous classical composers who did this, Bartok and Debussy.

So Bartok was a Hungarian composer, a pianist, and an ethnomusicologist, which means that he studied music from a cultural and a social aspect of the people that make it.

Bartok was also influenced by a variety of composers, including Strauss and Debussy, and he was very nationalistic.

He was often inspired by politics and wars that were happening in the world.

He was also influenced by opera and pantomime, and he composed some of those himself, and he was an avid collector of Hungarian folk music, and he travelled all around Hungary, collecting pieces of folk music and transcribing them.

The influences of folk music can be heard in his own compositions.

Have a listen to this piece by Bartok.

Did you recognise the question and answer phrasing that Bartok took inspiration from, from the folk music that you've heard? Have another listen and listen out for where the questions and the answer phrasing is.

Hopefully you heard it that time, if you didn't hear it the first time.

Let's take a look at Debussy.

Debussy was a French composer and pianist who was influenced by Russian and far Eastern music.

Throughout his career, he wrote melodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own.

In 1889, at the Paris exhibition, Debussy first heard Japanese gamelan music.

The gamelan scales, melodies, and rhythms appealed to him, and he began to compose music that evoked that shimmering sound.

Let's take a listen to a piece of gamelan music.

That was a piece of Japanese gamelan music.

Now let's take a listen to Debussy's Pagodes.

A pagode is a South Asian building, and Debussy tried to replicate it going up high on the building and then back down, just like pagodes have got lots of layers to their buildings.

See if you can hear the music going up and down, ascending and descending like the building.

So Debussy tried to imitate Japanese gamelans' heterophonic texture, which meant that there was one melodic line, but heard in a variety of different ways.

He also tried to replicate their rhythm cycle in gamelan music, and he used a prominent kind of perfect fifth, as well, in there.

And the pedal note that he's holding down is trying to replicate the gong sound as well.

So when you're listening out in Debussy's music, you can rewind the video, if you like, listen out for the repetitive melodic patterns that you can hear, and where you think that rhythmic cycle starts and ends.

See if you can hear his far Eastern influence.

For your first pause task, I'd like you to take five minutes and write down five things that influence Classical composers, such as Bartok and Debussy.

If you'd like an extension, I'd like you to think about what might influence your own compositions and music-making.

Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've explored how Classical composers use the pentatonic scale, you're now going to learn how to play the G-flat major pentatonic scale.

So far during this unit, we have only looked at the F-major pentatonic scale.

But there are more.

Today, we're going to look at G-flat major, and for that, you will need the black keys on the keyboard, not the white keys, the black keys on the keyboard have two names each, and they can be known as what we call sharps or flats.

If we want to say the sharp name, then we work from the left of the keyboard to the right.

So for example, if I want something to be C-sharp, I find C and I go to the right of it.

This black note here could be known as C-sharp.

The same with this one, this would be known as D-sharp.

This would be known as F-sharp.

What would this one be known as? That's right, G-sharp and then? A-sharp.

Fantastic, if you've got those, well done.

Sharps are drawn with a hashtag symbol next to them, you might've seen those before.

If we want to say the black notes' flat name, we work from right to left.

So for example, this black note here would be known as E-flat.

And this black note here would be known as D-flat.

What would this flat note here be known as? Well done, if you said B-flat.

What about this one? Well done if you said A-flat and? G-flat.

Well done, if you've got those.

And flats are drawn with a little B sign next to them, and you can see that on the top right hand side of the screen.

Let's play the G-flat major pentatonic scale.

We're going to use the same hand position that we used when we did the F major pentatonic scale.

So I'm going to put my thumb on G-flat.

My second finger is going to go on A-flat, and my third finger is going to go on B-flat.

And then with my left hand, my thumb is going to go on E-flat.

And then my second finger is going to go on D-flat, and we're going to play it across.

So we're going to start on our D-flat, and then we're going to go all the way up to our B-flat.

Here we go.

Excellent.

Well done.

And there you have it.

That is your G-flat major pentatonic scale.

For your second pause task, I'd like you to take five minutes to improvise your own two-bar question-answer melodies using the black keys only.

Remember you will still need to end your question on the dominant note and this time it would be D-flat, and your answer would still need to end on the tonic note, but this time it's G-flat.

If you have any other household members, can they play the answer to your question? And if you've mastered the pentatonic scale in your right hand only, can you compose a left hand accompaniment? Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've learnt how to play the G-flat major pentatonic scale, you're now going to perform some pentatonic melodies by Bartok and Debussy.

Listen to the beginning of Mikrokosmos by Bartok.

Follow the bottom line of the music, where the green arrow is.

I would like you to tell me whether you can name the pitches of each of those notes and what type of accompaniment style is being played here.

Here we go.

Let's hear that one more time.

Were you able to name the four pitches there on that bottom line? Well done, if you said C, F-sharp, there's our hashtag, G and D.

So C, F-sharp, G, and D.

And there's our sharp sign.

What type of accompaniment, then, is happening here? What repeats? Well done if you just said ostinato.

An ostinato is a pattern that repeats.

And finally, what's our time signature? Brilliant, if you just said 2/4.

Well done.

So now you can see that I've put the pitches for the bottom line and the top line for you.

And we're going to have a go at seeing whether we can actually play some of this, as well.

Take a look at the top line this time.

I'm going to play it slowly for you.

I'd like you to follow it.

Does anything repeat? Pay particular attention to some of the rhythms. Well done if you said that this bar and this bar have got the same rhythm, and then this bar and this bar have got the same rhythm.

The first bars of each phrase, if you like, have very similar rhythms, too, but here we start to play a little bit of a syncopated rhythm and we play it on the offbeat.

So if you want to learn the right hand melody, as well, for Bartok, you can put your hand in this position, so right hand, you need to go up from middle C, find the next octave up, and then find the next E.

So I'm going to start on this E and I'm going to put my thumb on this E and then I'm going to place my second finger, I'm going to skip my F and place my second finger on G, then my third on A, my fourth on B, and then my fifth is going to go on C.

And then the pattern you need to read the music, and you can read the pictures that I've written down for you, but it looks like this, and you can follow my fingers, if you like, so.

I'll do that once more for you, and you can follow along and you can tap out the hand pattern on your lap, if you like, as well.

Or you could say the pitches out loud as well, and see if you remember them.

Here we go.

And there you have it.

That's the right hand part of the Bartok.

So let's have a look at that repeating ostinato in the left hand.

So, to be able to play this, we're going to start on middle C, which is unusual for piano music, because usually we usually play in bass clef on the left hand side of the piano.

However, Bartok's written this with a treble clef at the beginning.

So it starts on middle C and then our melody is slightly higher.

So the fingers that you're going to need to use for this are here.

You're going to need to put your thumb on your left hand on G.

You're then going to need to put your second finger on your left hand on F-sharp, and then you're going to need to put your fourth finger on D and then your little finger is going to need to go on C.

So there's four notes that you need, and we actually start from our little finger on number five, and the pattern goes five, two, one, four.

Let's just say that again.

Five, two, one, four.

Let's just put some pitches with that.

So five, two, one, four.

Again.

Five, two, one, four.

Now to repeat and play the patterns, they're half beats.

So, once you've got that, you can start to get a little bit speed up.

And that's it.

That's the ostinato that should be played in the left hand.

The music that you can see on screen is the beginning of Debussy's "La fille aux cheveux de lin," which is French and roughly translates to "The girl with the flaxen hair." It's the eighth piece in Debussy's first book of preludes and was written between 1909 and early 1910.

It's really well known for its musical simplicity, and it just uses the black notes on the piano.

That's our pentatonic scale.

So I'm going to play the music and as it plays, can you follow the shape of the top line of notation? So just follow the treble clef.

For those of you who already read music and play an instrument, you also might recognise that the melody line is following an arpeggio.

What was the shape of the melody line? Did you feel it descend and then ascend again, and then descend and then ascend again? If you want to listen again, rewind the video and see if you can spot that.

Let's take a look at this piece by Debussy.

This is the opening, and I have written the numbers above it for where your fingers need to go on the keyboard.

And this is all just played in your right hand.

So the time signature has changed here, it's in 3/4, and it uses our G-flat major pentatonic.

As I play the melody line, can you read out the numbers? Here we go.

Did you manage to say the numbers out loud whilst I was playing? So take a look at those numbers again.

Can you see that the last three numbers are a slightly different colour? That's because you will have to move your right hand position from where it is on the keyboard when we play those three.

So I'm going to show you that in action now.

So to play this, which hand am I going to use? That's right, my right hand.

Okay, so I'm going to use my right hand to play this.

And why am I only using this hand? Because we're only playing the treble line.

Well done.

So where do I need to place this hand? Is it on the white keys or the black keys? On the black keys, okay.

So there's one note that looks out of place, have a look at the screen.

Which note do you think that is on the top right hand corner? It's an F, okay, yeah, so Debussy did use the G flat major pentatonic, but he cheated a little.

So we have to play this F and when we play the F, we have to move our hand position, which is why I've put those pitches in purple, as well.

So have a look at where I'm going to put my hands and watch how I do this.

If you want to tap out the same line on your knee, as I do this, feel free to and use the same fingers that I'm using.

I'll play very slowly so that you can keep up.

Here we go.

So I'm going to put my thumb and that's going to go on E-flat, and then I'm going to put my second finger on G-flat, my third on B-flat, and then I have to stretch across to my D-flat over here.

Let's have a listen to how this sounds.

Now, I just played that with slightly different fingers to how I've written it on the top right, and there's two different ways that you can do this.

You can either play it the way I've written it there, which might be easier for some of you.

So, five, three, two, one, and then back up, and then back down, back up, and then repeat the G-flat.

Then you have to go down to the F that Debussy snuck in there, which isn't in the G flat pentatonic, back up to your G.

And then you can either go three, two, one, or you can do what I call the thumb twist on it.

Watch my thumb when I get to that point, so.

My thumb goes down onto the F, my second goes across, and then my thumb comes back quickly and place it on the D flat.

I'll show you once more.

So you choose whichever one you think is easiest for you to play.

And there you have it.

If you can do that, you'll be playing classical music.

Amazing.

For your next pause task, I would like you to play through the beginning of Debussy's "La fille aux cheveux de lin." Make sure that you check your finger pattern and that you're playing in your right hand only, where you can.

If you find this easy, I'd like you to take a look at the downloadable resources and see if you can put in the left hand part or the additional pitches in the right hand.

You'll need to work out the fingers positions for those, though.

If there is another member of your household available, could they play the bassline for you whilst you play the melody? You could also play through the Bartok and as an extra extension, can you put the left and the right hand parts together? That is also in the downloadable resources.

Please pause the video to complete your task.

Take 10 minutes to do this, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you have performed pentatonic melodies by Bartok and Debussy, you're now going to compose in the style of a classical composer.

So now that you've explored some Classical composers and their use of the pentatonic scale, what are the similarities between them? Well, they all favour repetition of melodic and rhythmic ideas.

They all use simple melodies, and they've got longer phrases, too.

So composing in the style of Classical music.

Well, I'm going to steal some ideas from Bartok and Debussy.

And remember, when you're composing, there's no code of right or wrong.

So you can steal and take influences from other composers, if you'd like, and I'm going to take their influences of a G-flat major pentatonic scale.

So I'm just going to use my black keys to do this.

I'm going to compose some long phrases because they tended to compose longer phrases.

I'm going to see if I can use lots of repetition, and also I'm going to steal a 3/4 metre.

Those are all techniques that Debussy used.

So I'm going to set my metronome and I'm going to set it quite slowly because actually I want my inspiration taken from Debussy's piece.

I want to compose a really nice, relaxed melody.

So my tempo is going to be around, it's at 80, so 80 beats per minute.

Here we go.

There we go.

Right, okay.

So I've got a starting point.

How else can I add to that? So maybe I can have another middle section and then go back to that melody that I just composed there.

Let's see if I can remember that and try it again.

Slightly different, I think.

Let's go back to repeat.

So there again, I made a slightly different melody.

I stole some ideas of repetition.

I used a 3/4 time signature.

I just used my black keys on the keyboard, as well.

And you can see how I started to develop that, every time that I played it.

So it's now your turn to see if you can compose in the style of classical music, too.

For your next pause task, I'd like you to take five to 10 minutes.

See if you can compose your own four-bar phrase using the G-flat major pentatonic scale.

So just the black notes on the keyboard.

Remember to use lots of repetition, both melodic and rhythmic, and keep them quite simple.

As an extension, could you compose a left-hand harmony? Pause the video now to complete your task, and then resume once you're finished.

Let's recap today's agenda.

You began by exploring how composers use the pentatonic scale.

You then learnt how to play the G-flat major pentatonic scale and performed pentatonic melodies, both by Bartok and Debussy.

You then ended by composing in the style of classical composers.

Well done.

You have worked so hard today, and I'm super proud of you.

Well done.

For your very last pause task of the lesson, I would like you to take two minutes, just to reflect on what we've learnt today, and on your piece of paper, I would like you to answer the following question.

How does classical music use the pentatonic scale? Take 10 minutes to do that task, pause the video to complete your task, and then resume once you're finished.

I hope that you are able to answer that question, and if you weren't, maybe go back and have a look at Bartok and Debussy's melodies and see how they use the pentatonic scales there.

And if you want to do some extra research, you could have a look at how other composers use the pentatonic scales, too.

I hope today's given you lots of ideas that you can take forward into your own compositions.

So, final thing for me before I let you go is just to say, please don't forget to complete the quiz to show how much you've learnt today.

I'd really like to see.

That's all for me today.

Go and have a well-deserved rest now, and I'll see you soon.

Goodbye.